Improving Ingomar

Much needed upgrades to the electrical system, as well as other maintenance items, are being completed this summer at Ingomar Attendance Center.

The school gymnasium is being repainted and other routine maintenance items are being taken care of. But the big news is that improvements are being made to the school’s electrical system and a new intercom is being installed to replace the school’s antiquated metal bells and intercom system.

Kenny Roberts, Ingomar Attendance Center principal, said that sometimes the metal bells would not sound and students did not know when to change classes. The same was true during fire drills, “so we had to knock on each classroom door to notify each class,” he said.

The problems with the metal bells and intercom presented obvious safety and security issues should a real fire or tornado warning be sounded.

With the new system, which cost $12,000, Roberts and Elementary Principal Windy Faulkner can program specific tones for fire drills, tornado drills and other emergency alert drills. Each classroom will have its own intercom that allows office personnel, counselors or other faculty members to page a specific student in a specific class.

The electrical system upgrade includes improvements to the air conditioning system that also deals with a safety issue.

Roberts said that in the past “every time we had a program in the school auditorium, we had to stand on a ladder in the hallway next to the auditorium and reach up in the ceiling and flip a switch to turn the air conditioning on in the auditorium.”

We know that both students and their parents will be relieved that these issues, some of which have the potential to affect students’ safety, are being dealt with this summer.